Pumpkin Patch

It was a crazy month - we had a really hard time fitting in a time for our annual trip to the pumpkin patch before Chad and I left for Hawaii. I decided we would have to go this year without Chad and without Brad and Chelsea :(.



I lectured the kids before we got there that they would only be allowed to go on one ride (Mama has to save her money for Hawaii). It took awhile to make their decision but they all chose the exact same ride. The perfect thing was they had multiple of them, so they all had a turn at the same time - way to kill 4 birds with one stone.

They bounced, they flipped and had a ball! The man let them go extra long and they all came off with big smiles on their faces while they complained about how much it hurt - figure that one out!
With our trip to the pumpkin patch finished I felt like we were pretty much ready to head to Hawaii (no kids) and return on the morning of Halloween. Now that takes a lot of preparation!

Go Cougars

My husband and son are pretty obsessive BYU football fans. Why we had to get season passes for the home games when we live a 10 hour drive away I do not know! When BYU came to town to play SDSU we again decided to get a group together to go to the game. It just so happened that we ended up purchasing 90 tickets! Although it was a little confusing with the money and the seating it was totally worth it being surrounded by friends and family cheering on our cougars.

Trent and his boys!

Cute little LuLu even got into cheering with her mama Chelsea! Lucy was wearing a little BYU cheerleader outfit - it was so stinkin cute on her.

Luke and Jack thought they were so cool with no shirts on and their body paint



Hayley and her friends went a little crazy with the body paint and decorated every bit of skin that was showing

Abby, Chad and baby Beck. It was a good day - luckily BYU won - though it wasn't as easily as we had expected - a win is still a win. We ended the night with a trip to In n out to celebrate!

I'm a lucky/old woman

For my 37th birthday this year - some sweet friends took me to the Glen Ivy Day Spa in Corona. How fun is this place? Did you know that on your birthday you get in free? Once you enter the spa you have free range of all the pools and fun places that they have. The only thing the entry fee doesn't include is a treatment (which we didn't do) and lunch (which of course we did).

Our first stop was the mud baths. We started off in the water where we began to slather the mud all over, then we moved to the dry mud area where we completed the process of covering our bodies.


Then it was time for the mud to bake and dry on our bodies in this heating room. It was fun to look at how gross this process was, as well as sloughing it all off!

After we got cleaned off it was time for a little bite to eat - delicious

we relaxed in the roman tubs

sweat off a few pounds in the steam room

and soaked up some rays while floating around the pool. It was a wonderful way to spend my big day!

Opening presents with the kids - I got new towels and new bedding :)

My birthday cake - chocolate - my fave compliments of Brittany! I have a good life! Thank you family and friends!

If you give a mouse a cookie

The first graders put on a cookie night every year. They do all sorts of activities based on the book - If you give a mouse a cookie, which is a part of the core literature. We enjoyed taste testers and graphed our results of our favorites, did some cookie math, crafts, and played guessing games. The finale is a short program of the kids reciting some poetry and my Luke could not be more adorable - I am so in love! At the end of the program we were given a cookie, then a glass of milk, and of course a straw to go with it!

Our garden

We loved reaping what we sowed in our veggie garden this year. One of Chads and the kids favorite things to do was go inspect the garden, pick some fresh tomatoes and then come and feast. It is like a feeding frenzy I tell you (I am the only family member who does not LOVE tomatoes). It was this perfectly orchestrated little ritual. Bring in the tomatoes, slice them up, salt and pepper them, and then devour them, even licking the plate.



We even had success with our melons - both the watermelons and the cantaloupe were scrumptious! We only got one watermelon but what we lacked in numbers it made up for it in taste!

Labor day swim and bash

Su and I decided we needed to (and wanted too) do the oceanside pier swim on labor day. I wish I could say that we trained- I went one morning to do laps - that should count right? We were both swimmers in high shool and both in pretty good shape so we thought all would be well. We left early with a small posse of cheerleaders - Julie and Chels (you are the BEST by the way) to check in, get marked up and stretched out.

This was serious stuff - we were in different heats because of our age differences which was a bummer. Su got to swim with all the youngins. Each heat (there were 3) wore a different color cap, and in each heat were about 200 participants.

So excited and pumped to go!
So we both finished 7th in our age division (not heat) and both swam a pretty good time. Su beat me by 1 minute but I was very happy with my time. The swim is just over 1 mile. It was my first open water swim and I really enjoyed it - next year we are doing it again for sure. The swim out to the buoys seemed really long and I have to admit I thought about turning around but as soon as we rounded the buoy and was not going out any deeper I got into my groove and felt good.

We came back just in time for the 5th annual Opus One Labor Day waterslide bash. Each year this gets bigger and bigger. It was a beautiful day weather wise, with great friends, great entertainment, great food and great fun.


Trent was the first to aquire one of the many injuries. He somehow got his forehead slammed into the pavement after coming down the slide. There are always so many kids or adults (yes we have adult time and it is crazy) on the slide at one time. I was in the middle of a conversation with someone and the slide began tipping a little. I literally had just finished telling him how the slide has never tipped over once even though it looks and feels as though it would - when the whole thing, full of kids fell to one side. We all ran and starting pulling kids out as fast as we could. The first girl I pulled out was crying and hurt - I thought it was going to be a bloodbath, I was so worried. It turned out that she was the only one hurt, she caught air while it fell, and everyone else was laughing and thought it was the greatest thing. Huge relief would be an understatement!

Here are the teens after the crash - they dont look too upset do they, while the adults are tying each side down making sure this would never happen again.

Trent and his friends - I just love these boys - they are cute, smart, happy and good boys. I feel so grateful that he has such good friends to surround himself with.
Overall a good long, tiring day - just the way I like it!

First day of school

My oh my how fast our summer went. We had all sorts of fun at the lake, the beach and the pool. Now it is back to the grind - waking up early, packing lunches, schedules, homework, sports, piano and me driving my kids and picking up my kids ALL DAY LONG!

Abby now in 4th grade - she is my soccer nut - loves school, loves soccer and loves her friends
Seriously Luke in 1st grade - I am dying, my baby at school all day long. This day is harder for me than when they start kindergarten. What am I going to do now? Hmm I am sure when I am over being depressed I will come up with some great ideas.


Trent my big handsome 7th grader. Trent is still a lover of all things sports - everything else pretty much comes second to him!
So this is Hayley her second day of school - seminary doesn't start till the second week - so for one week she leaves when the sun is up! Hayley made the JV dance team at the high school - for the first day of school she had to go in uniform - this did not make her too happy. A new big school and a uniform that doesn't make one feel completely comfortable is not the best way to start off your high school experience.

Bass Lake

After visiting my brother and his family for a few days we drove to Bass Lake. It is located at the south entrance to Yosemite. We along with 2 others families rented a house right on the lake for a few days. It was so beautiful, the type of setting that you see on movies where kids go to summer camp. The lake is surrounded by tall pine trees, the water is a beautiful color and we couldn't have asked for a better location or a better time.

The Keelers, Downings and Gharrings on the deck of the house overlooking the lake.



At night the kids spent hours playing cards - the game of choice was gin rummy!

The Downings just happened to have a water trampoline - so plenty of time was spent on it

and on this - we are now all pro rowers

jumping off our private dock never got old

We tubed and wake boarded all day long. Poor Max on the first day was behind the wheel of the boat for 10 and 1/2 hours we figured out and loved every bit of it! This is the before shot of Lindsey and Hayley

This is the after shot - there was blood everywhere - they said the 6 feet of air they got was all worth it.

Seriously how many children can be towed on a tube - they found all sorts of ways to have fun.

The sunsets and night skies were so beautiful every night. It made me happy. The kids got sick of me telling them to look at how beautiful this or that was.


This is Luke on the kids ski - he thought he was so cool and loved every second of it. He was a pro. I cant believe I dont have shots of the other kids but they all got up on the wakeboard which meant for happy children.



One day we we went on a hike to these water falls. We knew in advance that it was pretty dangerous so we left the younger kids at the house. It was so cool - I love stuff like this. There was waterfalls and natural waterslides, there was water holes that you could jump into and it was so pretty. The water was frigid but so worth it for the cool experience. I could have spent so much time exploring and playing and hiking - once again very cool


Abby found this cool little heart shaped rock. I love her!

What a great trip. We came home exhausted from late nights of game playing and early mornings of boating on the glassy water and days full of relaxation and fun. It was a great last hurrah before summer was over! I am a Bass Lake fan!